'It's Not Us...'

On the eve of the Fall dates, Edge is amazed at the response of 'the U2 crowd' night after night.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Edge has been talking how much he is looking forward to hitting the road again after a month off - and suggests there are more changes to the set list in store.

'It's a real guitar player's tour and I'm revelling in that aspect of it.' he explains. 'But more than that I think the response from the U2 crowd has been overwhelming. Everywhere we've gone it's just been this unbelievable reaction. It's humbling, because it's not us that people are applauding. It's, in some weird way, themselves and their own lives and what those songs mean to them.'

At the launch of the tour back in San Diego last March, the band featured seven songs from How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - but as the shows continued through Europe, the set list lengthened and new songs came in. There's more change coming.

'It definitely feels like starting over,' says Edge. 'And that's what we want to do. We want to do something different. It's nine months since we started thinking about the tour, and that's a long time. We want to keep developing the show. We never allow it to become too static. We want to introduce new ideas as we go.'

The biggest fear, he says, is becoming too theatrical.

'Like the best rock 'n' roll bands always have, from Jimi Hendrix to Springsteen to the Stones, there's a little element of theatre. But, in the end, it still is rock 'n' roll. It's gotta evolve. It's gotta be fresh. If it becomes theatre, really, then it's lost an element of jeopardy and spontaneity, which is crucial.'

And there's no sign that anyone in this band will end up repeating themselves. They have surprised him more than ever on this tour.

'Adam's coming into his own as a performer on this tour. It's great to see him out there on the ramps, like really giving it loads. That hasn't been his interest for a few tours now. So it's nice to see that spirit back with Adam. I think there's a lot that Bono has been able to draw from his other political work and has made a kind of natural home for it within the context of the show and that's new. And Larry, he's playing keyboards, he's singing. It's amazing. I'd never thought I'd see Larry playing keyboards at a U2 show.'